


Is That How It Is?

by PFDiva



Series: Girl Genius Event Week [4]
Category: Girl Genius (Webcomic)
Genre: Ensemble - Freeform, F/M, Family Feels, Fluff, Multi, Post-Canon, very little plot but fight me
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-11
Updated: 2018-10-11
Packaged: 2019-07-29 08:02:19
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,039
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16260050
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PFDiva/pseuds/PFDiva
Summary: Klaus gets invited to the family reunion.





	Is That How It Is?

**Author's Note:**

> For Girl Genius Event Week day 4: Generation Bill

"I don't think I can do this," Klaus told Judy. He was sick to his stomach with nerves and about to walk into a park with five people who probably wanted him dead.

"Of course you can," Judy said, easily pulling Klaus along, "Punch and I have forgiven you, so Agatha has as well. The boys follow her lead, and Bill and Barry never hated you."

It took Klaus a moment to realize that since Bill and Barry _weren't_ "the boys" Judy was talking about she had to mean his son and Tarvek Sturmvoraus. It was jarring. He suddenly felt very old, and sagged against a tree. Judy stopped and turned to look at him as he scrubbed a hand over his face.

"Remember when Barry and Bill were the boys?"

Judy hummed agreement. "Though mostly, I remember you yelling."

Klaus couldn't help a smile.

"They're idiots."

Judy was arching a pointed brow at him when he looked up and he groaned, rolling his eyes, "I don't have to take this from you."

"Yes, you do. I'm the Heterodyne's mother." Judy laughed at the visceral shudder that produced in Klaus, knowing full well that in his mind, Bill would always be the Heterodyne. She pulled Klaus back to his feet, "Come on. By now, I'm sure they're all eager to be rescued from Punch."

"He's not _really_ as chatty as all that these days, is he?"

"He's got years of silence to make up for. Gil's really a very skilled spark."

Klaus felt a swell of pride for Gil's accomplishments, though he didn't let it show, "Well, I'm glad for you both. I hear you have another daughter?"

"And a son," Judy added, quite pleased, "She's seven and he's three. They've both got incredible right hooks."

Everything Judy and Punch could have wanted, then.

Judy brought Klaus into the clearing and he had to pause, just a moment, to stare. There were jaegers everywhere, of course, playing with the children, wrestling with each other, lounging around looking useless.

In the center was Agatha, nursing a child and arguing with Gil over the child he was holding. Incorrectly. That was probably what they were arguing about, honestly.

Sturmvoraus dandled an older child on his knee, looking more like an adult than Klaus remembered. In Klaus's mind, he'd been a mutinous 10 year-old for a very long time. Now, he was visibly a father, wiping his child's hands with a damp cloth, playing sleight of hand games with her grapes.

Zeetha was helping the jaegers chase a delighted and screaming little boy around the park clearing. He had green hair and Klaus's chest ached. He'd known Gil would never be Zanta's heir, but now it was more clear than it had ever been.

Airman Higgs was talking to a pair of women Klaus didn't know. One had green hair (It had taken him a long time to accept that some people dyed their hair green) and the other was redheaded and wearing an impractically fluffy dress.

Punch was sitting with Bill and Barry. Bill's eyes had glazed over, but Barry looked quite invested in whatever Punch was talking about. And Punch was definitely talking. A lot, if Bill's face was anything to go by.

Judy left Klaus's side to cuddle up to Punch, who paused and smiled at her, then peered around her at Klaus. Barry was already coming over, looking older and sheepish and nervous. Bill, as Judy had suggested, was eager to escape Punch and came running over.

"Klaus, where have you been? Took you long enough!"

Klaus seriously considered his options in response to Bill's question.

Then he punched Bill in the face. He put his weight behind it.

Barry smoothly sidestepped as Klaus knocked Bill off his feet. No fewer than ten jaegers came alive, waiting to see whether or not they should attack Klaus, but Klaus was only partially paying attention to them.

"I haven't seen you in literal _decades_ , Bill, and that's all you have to say for yourself?!" Klaus demanded, feeling 30 and young and lost all over again.

"Klaus," Barry said, watching Bill slowly sit up and rub at the new bruise on his face.

Klaus rounded on Barry, "And _you_. You seriously thought I was the Other?"

Barry winced.

"I can't blame Punch and Judy--they're not sparks and if I was, Bill's little girl was safer with them, but _you_ , Barry?"

Klaus hadn't meant to start a fight. There was silence, but for a child's annoyed squirming and the shushshushshush of the parent trying to keep the child silent while Klaus acted like an idiot. Klaus hadn't expected to feel so much at the sight of Barry and Bill. They'd been his best friends, and then they'd disappeared, and then everything else had gone to shit on top of it.

Motion beyond the boys caught Klaus's attention. It wasn't a jaeger, so he immediately noticed it. The woman who'd been talking to Higgs. She wasn't a stranger, and she was giving him a look that suggested he was one to talk about people leaving when they shouldn't.

"Chump."

Klaus laughed and it was a choked, wet sound, "I thought I was imagining things again. It's been a very long time."

Zanta's face softened fondly.

"I can't imagine you've been keeping up your training."

"Not at all."

She nodded decisively, then turned away to help Bill back to his feet.

"I'm sorry for my husband, and for interrupting. I'm going to take him somewhere private where I can punch him until he regains some semblance of sense. He'll make his own apologies when we return."

Klaus watched in a helpless sort of stupor as Zanta called Zeetha and Zeetha's son over for a hug, then kissed Gil, Tarvek, and Agatha on the forehead in quick succession. He was unpleasantly surprised to see all three of them just accept it like this was normal. Zanta then gave Higgs a smile full of a friendly sort of menace that made the usually-unflappable man blanch.

When she finished, Zanta looped her arm through Klaus's, and led him right back out of the clearing.

Seemed like life still had surprises in store for him after all.


End file.
